Movie review: 'Identical' is like no other

By Al Alexander/For the Patriot Ledger

Thursday

Jul 5, 2018 at 5:44 AM

Imagine what it would be like to be 19, and through serendipitous circumstances, suddenly discover that you have two brothers who look exactly like you, smoke the same cigarettes and share the same attraction to “older” women. That’s what happened to Bobby Shafran at the end of the summer of 1980. It was his first day as a student at Sullivan County Community College in upstate New York. He was a stranger, but he wasn’t treated like one. Ah, to the contrary, he was swarmed by his fellow students, who hugged, kissed and warmly asked “How was your summer?” And why did they all call him “Eddy”?

A few hours later, with an assist from a sharp-thinking dorm mate and a long-distance call, Bobby found his answer. He had a twin brother, Eddy Galland, from whom he was separated at birth. They meet, clown around like they’ve known each other their entire lives and fall instantly in love. A local reporter is summoned with the promise of an “amazing” story. It appears in Newsday, where a 19-year-old kid on Long Island, David Kellman, spots the twins. It’s like looking in the mirror. He contacts the pair, discovers they, too, were born on July 12, 1961. And that they were adopted. The twins are now triplets. The media descends.

Suddenly, they’re on the front of every newspaper and magazine, booking gigs on “Donahue” and “The Today Show.” There’s no waiting in line at Studio 54. They meet Madonna -- Madonna!!! She invites them to make a cameo in her very first movie, “Desperately Seeking Susan.” Can it get any better than this? Sadly, that turns out to be a big, fat “no,” And Tim Wardle’s absorbing, but troubling, documentary, “Three Identical Strangers” tells us why. Here’s where I’d advise you to read no other reviews and avoid friends who’ve already seen it, because the less you know going in, the more this incredible movie will engulf you.

By the end, you’ll be angry, spent, and overflowing with empathy for these three “boys,” who through no fault of their own, were ground up and spit out by a Cold War industrial complex that thought nothing of people’s lives so long as it advanced our knowledge of human behavior. As one of the brothers tells Wardle, it was like some “Nazi sh-t.” Worse, the boys weren’t the only siblings involved. There were several others, leaving you to wonder, how could something so sick be endorsed by the government, universities and family “advocates.”

That’s just the beginning as to why Wardle’s remarkable film is so engrossing. It’s also because of his skills as a master storyteller, releasing pieces of the fable like bread crumbs that keep us following this dark tale deep into the abyss. In literary terms, it’s “a real page-turner,” a summer read that’s an electroshock to your every thought and nerve. And it’s not just the brothers caught up in this emotional riptide. So are the surviving parents and the spouses. Oh, the spouses, one of whom is sporting baggage you wouldn’t want to wish upon your worst enemy.

Mental illness also eventually enters the picture. How could it not? And what it all comes down to is so simple that it breaks your heart. And that’s the mere fact that too much attention was paid to the traits the brothers shared, their similarities. But in the end, it was their unexplored differences that left all three boys permanently damaged. As one peripheral observer notes, “It’s like a Disney movie.” Only to be rebutted with the disturbing retort, “It’s a little darker than a Disney movie.” Darker, indeed. On the surface, the story of the triplets would seem to be a debate over nature vs. nurture. But by the end, it’s no longer about science. It’s a difference of right and wrong, of compassion and nefariousness, of truth and lies, with evil being the undisputed winner.

Movie review

Three Identical Strangers

(PG-13 for some mature thematic material.) A documentary by Tim Wardle featuring Eddy Galland, Bobby Shafran and David Kellman. Grade: A